Singapore Noodles made healthier

Saturday night is 'Try a new recipe night'

I got a spice subscription from 'The Spicery' for Christmas from one of my sisters. It was a really thoughtful gift as I'm really hard to buy presents for apparently (I can believe it.. as if I want something, I tend to buy it). However I've not really tried any of the recipes or the spice kits they send me every month as they're not really that healthy!

However - that got me thinking, why don't I just modify the recipe? Cut out the oil, change how things are done and hey presto, I'm using my sisters thoughtful gift but still eating healthy :-)

If you have things in the cupboard that you haven't used for ages as they're 'bad for you', have a think, can you change things around? Maybe not follow the recipe or change how to prepare things?

Tonight, I tried the Singapore Noodle spice kit.

I made sure I had prepared everything beforehand as I had to chuck things in the Wok quickly. One of the good things about this recipe is that I only needed a Wok really - I used it to make the omelette, washed it out quickly and then used it for the main dish.

Ingredients - SERVES 4 (easily)
250g of diced pork loin
100g of cooked prawns
1 red pepper - seeded and thinly sliced
200g of beansprouts
1 bunch of spring onions thinly sliced (even the green bit that sometimes people don't like!)
2 cloves of thinly chopped garlic
1 small piece of ginger, finely chopped
1 onion, thinly sliced
450g ready cooked vermicelli noodles
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp runny honey
1 tbsp vinegar
2 eggs - beaten
1 tsp five spice
2 tbsp medium curry powder (if you're not a total coward, you can make it hotter.. I just can't handle spice!)
2 thinly chopped red chillies


Method
1. Mix 2 tbsp of soy sauce, the honey, vinegar and 1 tsp of five spice together.
2. Marinade the pork in 1/2 of the sauce (keep the other half, don't throw it away!)
3. Finely chop 2 fresh red chillies and set aside.
4. Beat eggs into a cup with pinch of salt
5. Heat wok and spray with spray oil (I used 8 sprays - 8 calories) add the eggs, stirring a little to make thick, lumpy omelette, remove from pan and set aside.
6. Fry the pork with its marinade on a high heat until caramelised. Remove from heat and set aside.
7. Fry the onion in 12 sprays of oil (12 calories) until they soften and then add the red pepper, ginger, garlic, 1/2 tsp of salt and 2 tsbp of medium curry powder (Keep the heat high!)
8. Add the chopped red chilli, bean sprouts, prawns and spring onions and fry for a minute.
9. Add the fried pork, shredded egg noodles and 1 tbsp of soy sauce and stir fry for a few more minutes until all the ingredients are heated through.
10. Serve the noodles with the reserve sauce on the side.
11. Stuff in face :-)

It was really nice, however a little too spicy for me! Also, Sainsburys had run out of ready cooked Vermicelli noodles so I had to get dried ones instead and cook them - which was fine, however I cooked them at the beginning and by the time I went to put them into the wok and re-heat them, they'd stuck together in 2-3 big 'clumps' which were quite hard to break up and stir in. So, lesson to be learnt, if you have to cook the noodles, make sure you do it right at the end and add them STRAIGHT to the wok, don't let them dry! 

I'd certainly make it again, however make a few subtle alterations - Either way, I'm really glad I tried something new and feel really full. 

It was also nice that it was a 'proper meal', not a lettuce leaf, nor some weird 'slimming soup'. Definitely the way forward.